The Perfect Heart

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him." — 2 Chronicles 16:9 This passage occurs in the history of Asa, one of the most Godly and devoted kings who ever sat upon the throne of Judah. We are told in the fourteenth chapter that he began his reign by setting himself to destroy the idolatry into which the whole nation had been led by its former ruler, and to restore the worship and service of the God of Israel. He set himself to bring back the nation to its allegiance and obedience to God; and his success is a great encouragement to anyone who shall set themselves, single-handed and with a perfect heart toward God, to do this in any circle, under any circumstances.

He succeeded. God blessed him in his efforts to purge his kingdom inside, and God also delivered him from his enemies outside, and enabled him by His power to defeat the king of Ethiopia, who came against him with an exceedingly great army, because King Asa was perfect in his heart toward God.

When this king came up against him, Asa went and cried to the Lord, and cast himself upon his God, trusting Him to deliver him, and God never disappointed any person, either before or since Asa's day, who did that. God delivered his enemies into his hand and made him a successful and happy king over a prosperous and growing people.

But by-and-by, after many years—for Asa was perfect in his heart toward the Lord for many years of his long reign—whether it was, as, alas! too often happens, that a life of ease and prosperity brought about in Asa the results of partial backsliding, we do not know; but as years went on, another war was declared, and this time it was the king of Israel who came up against the king of Judah. What did Asa do? Did he go, as before, and cry to the Lord, and put his battle into His hands? No, he did not. He had left his first love; he had become, in a measure, untrue to the Lord God of Israel. He forgot where his strength lay; his spiritual perceptions had become dim; he had lost his realisation of God's ability to help and deliver him out of the hands of his enemies, and so he fell back upon worldly policy. He went down to Syria and courted Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, and said, "Come and help me, that my enemies may depart, for I am hard pressed." Ah! what a picture of backsliders.

On another occasion, when Jehoshaphat made an ungodly alliance, a prophet met him and said, "Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord?" No person ever did this without being severely corrected, as poor Asa was. He succeeded, indeed, in the battle, and won the victory.

It was a lawful goal, but he accomplished it by unlawful means. He won the victory, and, I dare say, he was congratulating himself and stroking his beard in self-complacency when, look! the prophet comes to deliver God's message to him, and he says: "Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.

Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand.

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars" — 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 —the very thing he went to Syria to try to avoid. He wanted peace, not war, and he went down to Syria to enable him to spend the remainder of his days in peace when, look! the Word of God goes forth, "You shall have wars." He was corrected in the very thing for which he sold himself and his God. "Be sure your sin will find you out." It is God's way to correct His children by those very things in which they sell His interests. "You shall have wars."

But we want to deal specially with the lesson that the prophet draws from this event; for he says, "Why did you go to Syria? Why have you sinned against God? Have you forgotten who the God of Israel was? Did you not know that the eyes of the Lord run throughout the whole earth?"

He would have helped you now, Asa, as much as in the past. He will help any person who is whole- hearted toward Him—who trusts in Him. Now, I say, this is the lesson that the prophet draws, not only for Asa, but for all the Asas since his day, and those who are yet to come, for every man and woman who professes to be a servant of God; the prophet sounds down through the ages that "the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him."

Now, what is this perfect heart? "Ah!" you say, "that is the point." Yes, that is the point, and we will try to show what kind of a heart this is. It must be a different kind of heart from hearts in general; all hearts are not perfect toward God, or else His eyes would not have to be running to and fro throughout the earth to find them. They would be plentiful enough if they were the common sort of hearts, but evidently they are a different kind of heart from ordinary hearts; and another thing is evident on the face of the text, that this kind of heart is very precious in the sight of God.

He delights in it; He values one such more than He does thousands of the other kinds of hearts, of which there are so many. I say, these two lessons everybody with common sense will admit at once—that these hearts are not the common hearts, and that they are very precious in the sight of God.

Now, what is the meaning of this term "perfect heart," referring to the hearts of God's children all the way through the Bible? As you know, I like to establish my points in the mouths of two or three witnesses, I will give you two or three texts, so that we may find out God's meaning of this term, and then we will give you the very lowest interpretation, where all sides are agreed, for I don't want controversy. We will just look at Psalm 37:37: "Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace." — Psalm 37:37 There are such people as God means in that verse.

"that they may shoot from ambush at the blameless man," — Psalm 64:4 who have always been a favorite target of the devil. He does not shoot much at people whose hearts are not perfect toward the Lord. It is at those perfect people he shoots.

"shooting at him suddenly and without fear." — Psalm 64:4 perhaps while he is thinking they are his friends.

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." — Matthew 5:48 That means something. We will try to find out what it does mean.

"Jesus said to him, 'If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.'" — Matthew 19:21 And, again, at 1 Corinthians 2:6— "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom," — 1 Corinthians 2:6 And 2 Timothy 3:17— "that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." — 2 Timothy 3:17 There are numbers of others, but these are samples, and I suppose all Christians attach some meaning to these terms. They must be terms signifying a great difference between the persons who are spoken of and ordinary men and women. Now, what do they mean? Well, the very lowest interpretation of all scholars and all schools is this, that it means sincerity and thoroughness. Well, that is all I want. Give me a person sincere and thorough in their love, and that is all I want; that will stretch through all the areas of their existence; it will go to the ends of their fingers and their toes, through their eyes, and through their tongue, to their spouse, and to their family, to their shop, and to their business, and to their circle in the world. That is what I mean by holiness! Then, taking the lowest translation, it means that a person is whole-hearted in love, and thorough out-and-out in service! Amen. For that person who is thus perfect toward God, God will indeed show Himself strong in more ways than one!

This cannot mean a merely natural heart; it must mean a renewed heart, because there are no perfect hearts by nature. There is no one in this sense who does good and does not sin, for every child of Adam has gone astray like a lost sheep, has done the things they ought not to have done, and left undone the things they ought to have done, and the whole world has become guilty before God.

There are no naturally perfect hearts. It must mean, then, a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit, put right with God, and then kept right. A heart cannot be kept right until it has been put right, and that is the secret of the failure with some of you. You are trying to produce fruit before the tree is planted. You are looking for the fruits of a perfect heart before you have gotten one. You may well be disappointed. You must get your heart renewed, and then kept right by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then, what does this perfect heart imply?

1. A heart perfect in its loyalty to God, thoroughly given over to God's side, regardless of consequences—loyal. These are the hearts that God wants. This was the difference between David and Saul. There was not so much difference in the greater part of Saul's outward life when compared with the life of David. It was only the prophet Samuel, perhaps, who knew the difference, and a few close observers; but the difference was that David was loyal to God, and God calls him, for this reason, a man after His own heart.

From the first calling of David from the sheepfolds, right to the end, with one or two exceptions, during the whole of his life, he was loyal to God, and, if you will carefully search his history, you will find that in all his wars, and all his dealings with the nations round about, and with the leaders of affairs in his own kingdom—in everything, David was loyal to God. It was the interests of God's kingdom that lay at David's heart—not his own honor, ease, or advancement—not his own fame or riches, or building himself a house—it was the house of his God that was dear to his heart. He was loyal; whereas Saul was loyal only as far as it served his own purposes and interests. Oh! how many such Sauls there are in these days. When God's commandments went against his notions, he openly set God at naught and did as he liked. He sacrificed God's interests to his own. He was disloyal at heart, hence he was a traitor, and never could learn the way of the Lord. He was never perfect toward the Lord his God, and, at last, God cast him off, and Samuel did also, and you know what his end was. Just the difference between the two—loyal and disloyal.

A heart perfect toward God! What does it mean? It means— 2. Perfect in its obedience. That man or woman who has this kind of heart ceases to pick and choose among the commandments of God, which they shall obey and which they shall not—they cease to have their own will, though sometimes they may have a struggle with their own will, and the way that God may call them to take may look to them as if it were a dangerous or risky way, and they may wait a little bit to be thoroughly satisfied; but when once satisfied that it is God's way, the true child will not hesitate. They do not consult with flesh and blood, but on they go, regardless of consequences. This was Paul's kind of obedience. He did not consult with flesh and blood; he counted all things rubbish and loss, and he went on doing so to the end—thorough in his obedience.

People come to us and want to know what they are to do; they feel that they are only half-hearted in God's service; they have neither joy nor power, and say, "What must I do?" and we take, as God helps us, the dissecting knife and try to find out the difficulty. We get them down under the blaze of the Holy Spirit's light and try to probe them and find where they are wrong. Perhaps the Lord leads us to the sore spot, and we point out the difficulty, but, instead of obeying, they shrink away.

They look ahead, and they see that to obey the light will involve loss of some kind—perhaps reputation, wealth, family associations, ease, or loss of friends, loss of temporal comforts, loss of good business. Loss is in the background, and they see it. They know where we are leading them to, and they slip back; they do not want to see, and yet they do not want to consider themselves dishonest, so they turn their heads away and will not look in the direction of the light, smoothing it all over and singing— "Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small," etc.

That is not a perfect heart, but a partial heart toward the Lord God.

The partial heart, so common, alas, nowadays, wants to serve God a little. It is willing to go a little way with God, but not all the way; so that, taking the lowest interpretation, that is not a perfect heart toward the Lord. Can it be expected that the Lord should show Himself strong in behalf of such people? Do you think you would if you were God?

Suppose you were a king, and had a prince or statesman who was serving you very valiantly and devotedly while it served himself; but, suppose the tables were turned, and you were dethroned and cast away into exile, your name being thrown around the nation where you once reigned as king in disgrace and dishonor; suppose this statesman gave you up and said, "Oh! I am going to be on the side of the reigning monarch. I was very devoted to this man while he reigned, but I cannot afford to be devoted to him now that his interests drag in the dust; I must be on the winning side."

What would you think of such a man? And if you were restored to your kingdom and power, would you show yourself strong on behalf of such a man? No; you would remember, as David did, the man who cursed you. But if you had a prince or statesman who followed you into exile, who served you in secret, who tried to hold up your interests, who contended for your righteousness and justice, and held up your name and tried to make the people see that you were a good and true man, who held on to you when all the nation was calling you a traitor—if you came back to your throne, would you not show yourself strong in behalf of that man? Of course you would. The Lord says He will show Himself strong in behalf of those of such a heart toward Him.

You masters here have a servant—a clever, smart man; you know how well he can serve you, and how valuable he can be, and would be if he were true; but you have reason to believe that he will only go with you as far as it will be for his own interests; he will serve you as far as he can serve himself, too, but, if he can get ahead by putting you down, you may lie there. What would you say to such a man? You would say, "I shall never show myself strong for him." So God is not likely to show Himself strong for people who are not of a perfect heart. A lady said to me, "I have been doing this and doing that for years, but I have no power; why don't I have it?" I said, "Because you are not true to God. He will give it to anybody who is true to Him, and He can see into your heart, and knows you are not." Why will He not show Himself strong in your behalf? Because you do not show yourself thorough in His behalf. The moment you show yourself thorough, that moment will He show Himself strong for you.

If you had been in Daniel's place, you would not have done as he did. Daniel was one of the perfect- hearted men; he served his God when he was in prosperity. He set his window open every day.

Then his enemies persuaded the king to make a decree that no person should pray to anyone but to this king for so many days. "Now," they said, "we shall have him." But Daniel just did as he was accustomed to do; he went and prayed with his window open. You say, "That was demonstrative religion, that was courting opposition. What need was there for him to make this display; could he not have shut the window and gone into an inner room? That was just like you Salvation-Army people, you always make a demonstration. Why could he not have gone into an inner chamber and prayed?" Because he would be thorough for his God in adversity, in the face of his enemies, just as he was in prosperity. So he went and prayed with an open window to the God of Heaven, and because He is the God of Heaven, He is able to take care of His own. His heart was perfect toward the Lord his God.

3. This perfect heart is perfect in its trust:—and, perhaps, that ought to have come first, for it is the very root of all.

Oh, how beautiful Abraham was in the eyes of God; how God gloried over him. How do I know that Abraham had a perfect heart toward God? Because he trusted Him. No other proof—no less proof—would have been of any use. I dare say he was surrounded with weaknesses, had many erroneous views, manward and earthward, but his heart was perfect toward God. Do you think God would have failed in His promise to Abraham? Abraham trusted Him almost to the blood of Isaac, and God showed Himself strong in his behalf, and delivered him, and made him the father of the faithful; crowned him with everlasting honor, so that his name, from generation to generation, has been a pillar of strength to the Lord's people, and a crown of glory to his God.